The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge

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1932. Ernie and Lily Hass, and their daughter, Girlie, have lost almost everything in the Depression; all they have keeping their small family together are their secrets. Abandoning their failing wheat farm and small-town gossip, they make a new start on the west coast of Australia where they begin to build a summer guesthouse. But forming new alliances with the locals isn’t easy.

Into the Hasses’ new life wanders Lily’s shell-shocked brother, Tommy, after three harrowing years on the road following his incarceration. Tommy is seeking answers that will cut to the heart of who Ernie, Lily and Girlie really are.

Inspired by the author’s own family history, The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge is a haunting, memorable and moving tale of one family’s search for belonging. Kali Napier breathes a fever-pitch intensity into the story of these emotionally fragile characters as their secrets are revealed with tragic consequences. If you loved The Light Between Oceans and The Woolgrower’s Companion you will love this story.

Overview

About Kali Napier

Kali Napier worked in Bangladesh as an anthropologist on gender programs before working as an Aboriginal family history researcher for the Queensland government and as a Native Title anthropologist in the mid-west of Western Australia, the setting for The Secrets at Ocean's Edge. The novel was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award as was her first manuscript. Napier was also a finalist in the Hachette Australia Manuscript Development Program and is currently a Master of Philosophy candidate in creative writing at the University of Queensland. The character of Ernie in The Secrets at Ocean's Edge is based on her great-grandfather, who settled briefly in Dongara during the Depression. Napier’s parents were married in Delhi, hence her name, Kali. She led a peripatetic childhood, growing up in rural England, Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Indonesia. Kali now lives in Queensland with her two ‘beautiful and utterly ratbag’ children.